The present invention relates generally to feeders for animals such as hogs, and more particularly to feeders of the type in which feed is dispensed from the bottom opening of a hopper onto a shelf from which the feed is swept by the animal, with its snout, into a trough located below the shelf. In the feeder described in the related application, the hopper has an inclined sidewall extending downwardly and inwardly toward the hopper's bottom opening, and the shelf and the inclined hopper sidewall comprise structure cooperating to permit the animal to sweep feed from the shelf into the trough while substantially preventing the animal from feeding directly from the shelf. The advantages of a hopper having the features described in the preceding portion of this paragraph are discussed in the aforementioned related application.
A hopper of the type described in the preceding paragraph has a gate located at the bottom of the inclined hopper sidewall. This gate is mounted for sliding movement along the hopper sidewall in a direction having a substantial vertical component. The gate has a lower edge normally located directly above the shelf, and the vertical distance between the gate's lower edge and the shelf determines the size of the discharge opening at the bottom of the hopper. There is an adjustment mechanism manually actuable to move the gate and vary the distance between the gate's lower edge and the shelf, thereby to vary the size of the hopper's bottom discharge opening.
There are circumstances in which it is desirable to provide for animal actuated movement of the gate. A gate which is fixed against animal actuated movement is undesirable.